Wind cuts power to more than 70,000

Sunday

Nov 29, 2009 at 3:15 AMNov 29, 2009 at 5:55 AM

From STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

CONCORD — Gusting winds knocked out power to upward of 70,000 Maine and New Hampshire households on Saturday with thousands of Seacoast and Lakes Region residents being among those experiencing problems.

More than 70,000 power outages were reported throughout Northern New England as a result of a wind storm that carried gusts reaching over 45 mph and downed wires.

Some outages started on Friday night as an offshore nor'easter brought the first heavy snow of the season to the White Mountains. Mount Washington, Crawford Notch and others reported at least 10 inches.

Outages increased throughout the day Saturday as the wind got stronger with the problems subsiding as winds calmed in the evening.

"It's definitely been climbing," said Matt Chagnon of Public Service Co. of New Hampshire, the largest utility in the state, which reported about 42,000 customers without power as of early Saturday afternoon.

Chagnon said the main reason for the outages was limbs and trees falling on utility poles and wires.

New Hampshire Electric Coop reported over 10,700 outages by the afternoon, with the most in Alton, Gilmanton, New Durham and Derry. That number was down to around 2,200 late in the day.

The Lakes Region Mutual Fire Aid Association reported they were busy Saturday, with multiple calls for trees or branches that had fallen onto utility wires; however, a dispatcher there reported no major damage. The downed trees, limbs and wires did cause scattered power outages in the Lakes Region, especially for customers of the New Hampshire Electric Co-operative based in Plymouth.

In Lakes Region communities, Co-op customers experienced multiple clusters of outages which affected groups of households or businesses. In Gilmanton, 233 were without power Saturday afternoon, 161 in Meredith, 131 in Gilmanton, 126 in Moultonborough, less in Alexandria, Holderness and Bridgewater, Northfield, Sandwich, Barnstead, Campton and Thornton.

According to Public Service of New Hampshire, there were no outages in Lakes Region communities as of Saturday afternoon

PSNH spokesman Chagnon said the Rochester and Dover area had around 2,100 customers without power as of 4:30 p.m.

He said Portsmouth had no reported outages, but noted that Newmarket and Durham residents were part of an Epping grid that had 4,700 homes without power during the peak of the problems.

Utility crews were out in force as a result of the storm with emergency responders keeping busy with downed lines.

There were reports of trees on wires throughout Strafford County with some causing brief traffic delays.

Dover firefighters received 10 calls between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. dealing with wind-related issues, Fire Capt. Richard Bell said. The wind created some traffic problems downtown when it knocked down a traffic light at the intersection of Main and Chapel streets, he said.

The light stayed knocked down throughout the day and resulted in a partial closure of Central Avenue. Northbound traffic beyond Chapel Street was detoured down side streets, Bell said. Chapel Street was also closed to southbound traffic that could normally turn left onto it, he said.

Wind also resulted in other service calls in Dover. Bell said wind blew roofing off a home on Locust Street and blew out windows at Robbins Auto Parts on Washington Street.

There were also some power outages in the city, he said.

In Rochester, Captain Willy Hoyt said they fielded 12 calls that could be attributed to the weather. The bulk of wind-related calls came between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. and dealt with downed lines or branches threatening to come down into the road, he said.

Power line issues resulted in temporary roadblocks while local authorities waited for PSNH to arrive for repairs, Hoyt said. Due to some power outages, firefighters also had to respond to several calls about alarm activations, he said.

Trees also came down onto a couple homes in the city, he said.

"It kept us really busy for a little bit," Hoyt said.

PSNH said it had about 80 line crews working to assess damage, mostly fallen tree limbs hitting utility poles. It was in the process of getting out-of-state line crews, as well. Chagnon said the hardest-hit area was western New Hampshire.

Chris Pope, the state's director of homeland security and emergency management, said New Hampshire's emergency operations center was open and monitoring the storm. He said he wasn't aware of any storm-related injuries or blocked roads.

"Our main concern at this point is that people be mindful if they see downed wires, they should assume that the wires are live and should not touch them," he said.

Unitil, which provides power to communities in the Seacoast region and in the Concord area, reported about 2,274 outages by early Saturday afternoon, with most along the Seacoast. That number was reduced to 737 by late in the afternoon; all were expected to be fixed by midnight Saturday.

Unitil outages were reported in towns ranging from Stratham and Greenland to Brentwood and Hampton.

Until spokesperson Stephanie Schuyler said the problems seemed to peak around 12:30 p.m.

The National Weather Service said a wind advisory was in effect until about 7 p.m.

In Maine, about 15,000 customers of Central Maine Power were without electricity, utility spokesman David Phifer said.

"The winds are still building to the mid-40s," he said. The utility covers about half of the state.

In Vermont, Central Vermont Public Service reported about 2,000 outages, mostly scattered.